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Criminals Continue to Defraud and Extort Funds from Victims using Cryptowall Ransomware Schemes

June 24, 2015 by admin

Data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) shows ransomware continues to spread and is infecting devices around the globe. Recent IC3 reporting identifies CryptoWall as the most current and significant ransomware threat targeting U.S. individuals and businesses.1 CryptoWall and its variants have been used actively to target U.S. victims since April 2014. The financial impact to victims goes beyond the ransom fee itself, which is typically between $200 and $10,000. Many victims incur additional costs associated with network mitigation, network countermeasures, loss of productivity, legal fees, IT services, and/or the purchase of credit monitoring services for employees or customers. Between April 2014 and June 2015, the IC3 received 992 CryptoWall-related complaints, with victims reporting losses totaling over $18 million.

These financial fraud schemes target both individuals and businesses, are usually very successful, and have a significant impact on victims. The problem begins when the victim clicks on an infected advertisement, email, or attachment, or visits an infected website. Once the victim’s device is infected with the ransomware variant, the victim’s files become encrypted. In most cases, once the victim pays a ransom fee, he or she regains access to the files that were encrypted. Most criminals involved in ransomware schemes demand payment in Bitcoin. Criminals prefer Bitcoin because it’s easy to use, fast, publicly available, decentralized, and provides a sense of heightened security/anonymity.

If you believe you have been a victim of this type of scam, you should reach out to your local FBI field office. You may also file a complaint with the IC3 at www.IC3.gov. Please provide any relevant information in your complaint.

Tips to protect yourself:

  • Always use antivirus software and a firewall. It’s important to obtain and use antivirus software and firewalls from reputable companies. It’s also important to continually maintain both of these through automatic updates.
  • Enable popup blockers. Popups are regularly used by criminals to spread malicious software. To avoid accidental clicks on or within popups, it’s best to prevent them from appearing in the first place.
  • Always back up the content on your computer. If you back up, verify, and maintain offline copies of your personal and application data, ransomware scams will have limited impact on you. If you are targeted, instead of worrying about paying a ransom to get your data back, you can simply have your system wiped clean and then reload your files.
  • Be skeptical. Don’t click on any emails or attachments you don’t recognize, and avoid suspicious websites altogether.

If you receive a ransomware popup or message on your device alerting you to an infection, immediately disconnect from the Internet to avoid any additional infections or data losses. Alert your local law enforcement personnel and file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

Filed Under: Computer Doctors News, Security Tagged With: Malware, Vulnerability

A New Twist on Tech Support Scams Pop Ups

February 21, 2015 by admin

Tech support scams are not going anywhere any time soon. The number of fake pop ups and bogus 1-800 numbers keep popping all over the place.

This usually happens while you are browsing the web, or perhaps if you make a typo in a site’s name. This is a classic scare tactic with the goal of tricking you into calling for “tech support”.

Miscreants operating out of boiler rooms will impersonate Microsoft and ask you to pay hundreds of dollars for non-existent. Worse, they may hijack your PC and infect it with malware before running away.

The following screen will probably look familiar:

In an interesting twist first reported by How-To Geek, one such scammer is trying out a different scare tactic. Rather than direct victims to a phone number, it pushes a piece of software, which appears to be AdwCleaner. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Computer Doctors News, Security Tagged With: Malware, Malwarebytes, Security

10 Malware Removal Apps Tested, Malwarebytes Comes out on Top

August 5, 2014 by admin

malwarebytesOnTopA recent test done by the independent antivirus research group AV-TEST—whose tests we’ve mentioned in the past—took a look at the performance of today’s most popular malware removal applications. Most of the applications showed excellent performance, but only Malwarebytes—a free download—managed a perfect score.

AV-TEST sought to answer an important question: can anti-malware software completely clean up and repair a Windows system after an attack?

The good news is that overall each application was very effective at providing cleanup and repair to Windows machines, which is important if you think someone has broken into your machine or downloaded some suspicious plugins.

Each application was put through a rigorous endurance test that lasted a total of 10 months. During this time several different malware families were tested repeatedly and the malware even underwent constant evolution along the way. All of the samples used were already known to the removal applications, so the primary purpose of the test was efficiency in detection, complete removal, and restoration. Tests were also conducted on antivirus software, but keep in mind there’s a difference between antivirus and anti-malware.

In the end, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free scored a cool 100% in total system repair. The paid apps Bitdefender Internet Security 2014 came close in second with a score of 99.4%, and F-Secure Internet Security 2014 tied with Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 at 97.8%. The next best scores for free applications came from AVG AntiVirus Free 2014 and Avast! Free Antivirus 9.0.

Remember, it’s important to keep in mind that these were tested for malware removal and not for virus protection. We can show you what we think are the best desktop antivirus applications, and if you’re curious to see how antivirus apps ranked at AV-TEST, click the link below to read more.

Filed Under: Computer Doctors News Tagged With: Malware, Malwarebytes

Vulnerability Found in Samsung’s Galaxy S4

December 28, 2013 by admin

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University’s security lab (BGU) discovered a vulnerability in the Samsung Galaxy S4’s Knox architecture. If exploited, the attacker could capture all communications like email and file activity; leaving no data secure.

The Knox security suite is Samsung’s answer to business security concerns when it comes to Android.

A key component of this security layer is using an application container to separate corporate and personal applications so users could freely use personal apps without worrying about cross-contamination. According to BGU’s discovery this is no longer the case. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Computer Doctors News Tagged With: Malware, Security, Vulnerability

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